SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — In an emotional interview from ICE detention, a Canadian entrepreneur said she is trying to stay strong as she waits to find out when she might get released.
“I've never seen anything like this. I feel like we have been kidnapped, and we are in some sort of insane social, psychological, social experiment,” Jasmine Mooney told Team 10 in a tearful exclusive video interview Thursday.
Mooney, 35, said she’s only been able to speak to Team 10 and her best friend in Canada since she’s been detained at the San Luis Regional Detention Center in Arizona.
“It’s been 11 days now, and I have no idea what is going on, they don't tell you anything, and I have lost so much weight. I'm truly, physically, weak,” she told Investigative Reporter Austin Grabish.
Border officers at the San Diego border detained Mooney last Monday after she showed up with paperwork for a TN visa along with a job offer from a wellness company.
Trump's executive order used
The Canadian national had a previous visa revoked when she was living in Los Angeles, working for a beverage company that sells health tonics. She said a paperwork issue led an officer at the Vancouver airport to cancel her visa.
ICE told Team 10 Thursday it detained Mooney for not having legal documentation to be in the United States.
The agency said Mooney was processed in accordance with President Donald Trump’s "Securing Our Borders" Executive Order dated January 21.
“All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the U.S., regardless of nationality,” an ICE spokeswoman told Team 10.
Mooney said she hasn’t been able to see an immigration judge while detained. Her family has hired attorneys and is pressuring the Canadian government to get her released.
"I'm desperate to have her home where she is safe, loved, and surrounded by friends and family to help her heal from this senseless trauma," Jasmine's mother Alexis Eagles said in a message to Team 10.
Canadian lawmaker David Eby, who oversees the province of British Columbia, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation he was “profoundly concerned about these kinds of actions” by the U.S. administration.
He said they "violate the very idea that Canadians are safe in the U.S. when we visit."
Jasmine’s father, Stephen Mooney, told Team 10 he is desperate to hear his daughter’s voice and is hopeful political pressure from Canadian lawmakers will lead to Jasmine’s release.
“I won’t celebrate until I hear her voice on the phone and she is back in Canada,” he said.
